Its been a while since I've made a blog post. I'm making daily posts regarding course opening, carts and practice range restrictions or lack thereof on social media. Allow me a few moments to expand upon the work we have completed this fall so far and what there is to come.
We attempted to delay any aeration of main playing sources until we've gotten through most of our calendar of events in September and October. We began the aeration work around our greens using a 1/2" coring tine after slit seeding fescue around the greens to improve our coverage of turf grass. Our process included slit seeding, then aerating, spreading seed with a rotary spreader and then dragging in the material to make good soil contact and mowing. We should get seed germinating in the areas over the next couple of weeks and will then mature in the spring. We plan on using our rough aerator that makes a little bit larger hole a further out on the green surrounds over the next week or two which will improve its overall health as well.
We will begin to use our pull behind rough aerator in our rough soon as time and weather permits. Cores or plugs are pulled and we use a metal drag to break them up. This assists in reducing compaction and helps with stimulating new growth in our rough plants.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4cVFB2DlRQ
Greens aeration will begin on Monday, November 1st. Depending upon conditions for the first day, it might take us a 2nd day or so to finish up the last few greens. We will use our deep tine verti-drain aerator and go about 7-8" deep. The holes will be filled with sand and surfaces brushed to smooth them
out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ0xEew0b9I
Our warm season turf grass zoysia was fertilized with potassium in September to assist it with winter hardiness. It thickens the cell walls and improves water and energy uptake. As zoysia goes into dormancy, it is storing energy which assists it in fighting off excessive cold temperatures.
We applied fertilizer to our cool season rough grass in the past couple weeks which will assist in providing new energy for our turf. As temperatures begin to fall, it utilizes less energy and begins to store energy for the next season. Once cold temperatures arrive in late November and early December it goes into a form of dormancy even though it is fairly green. The stored energy then allows the plant to green up a little earlier than non-fertilized turf.
A couple of weeks ago, I asked our contracted tree expert Tim Gamma to come out on property and assist me in evaluating trees that have been damaged by the gall over the past year or two that should be removed. There are 35-40 trees that were identified for removal in which 21 are Pin Oaks. There are a few Ash, Siberian Elms and Maples in which some were damaged by this summer storms and or have been scheduled for removal over the past year which make up the total number of trees. Some of these trees will be removed completely by our staff but others will require assistance from our contractor. They will top them leaving a stub and we remove the large limbs that can't be chipped and the log. Our budget does not have the funds in it to remove all the trees. GM Tim Grossman and the Board are working through the finances to determine the number of trees we can remove with the available finances.
We made our last mowing early last week on our zoysia tees, approaches and fairways. They might grow slightly over the next week or two and will then go into dormancy as our temperatures get cold enough for frost. We have also made our large patch zoysia fungicide application over the past few weeks to reduce the effects of the disease. The fall application of the fungicide assists in reducing the severity of the disease in the spring but we also must make another application in the spring to keep the disease under complete control.
Thanks again to the Foundation for the recognition of the work accomplished over the years here at Glen Echo by our staff.
Hundreds of courses in our business host a tour or major event each year but for thousands of others, there is a local event that is the major focus for its staff.
This past week, our club and staff were given the opportunity to host our major event at the club, The Invitational 2020. The work that was completed over the many months prior to the tournament plus the weather we were given over the last couple of weeks provided for great surfaces for our members and guests to play. Congratulation to Mr. Len Toenjes and his guest Mr. Russ Hanson who won the shootout and the overall title for the event.
We still have some great golf weather ahead over the next month or more. Most of our efforts emphasize putting our turf to rest for winter in the best condition possible so it awakens ready to grow next spring. Below are some the areas of focus we will have over the next month or two.
Raising Height of Cut
As our zoysia begins to go dormant, we raise our height of cut slightly to assist with wear and tear and energy storage. We have reset our fairway unit and tee mower to 3/4" which is just .150" taller than their normal height. Once the growth slows over the next couple of weeks, we will stop mowing completely for the season to allow them to get a little fuzzy for winter. I anticipate our amount of play and cart traffic will be up so the turf will get beat down a little. Drier conditions, cooler and temperatures and less sunlight help in reducing overall growth so we should still have excellent playing conditions.
We have also applied Potassium to our zoysia surfaces over the last couple of weeks to improve its ability to survive the winter onslaught of cold and frozen precipitation.
Our green turf height usually gets raised slightly during the month of November and we usually quit mowing greens after Thanksgiving depending upon the temperatures and if there is a need to continue mowing.
Aeration, When Are You Going to Aerate Greens
We will be performing the same process we did in the spring with our greens, Verti-drain deep tine aeration. Since all of our Mondays are full through the month of October, we will begin our aeration after the tournament being held on October 26th. We will do some greens each day to get the process completed. I've always been of the opinion, to do our greens past closing day to give our membership and guests the best possible putting surfaces during the best time of the year to play in regards to ball roll out and turf health.
We also will be pulling cores on our rough the next couple of weeks and will also be involved in some seeding in weaker areas of the rough. We did some initial seeding and aerating in our green surround areas a couple of weeks before the Invitational.
We will also be fertilizing our cool season rough over the next couple of weeks. We begin last week but had an equipment malfunction and are waiting on parts so if the rough smells a bit earthy, you will understand the reason. A part of our fertilizer in organic in its origin.
Drainage Project from # 6 through #8
We anticipate to begin the storm water drain project after the first week of November. The project will begin on hole 6 from the beginning of the drain along 6 property line to the first large surface drain in the left forward area of 6 approach. We expect the first section will take us about 7 working days or so. During the work on this section, the 6th hole will be closed to all play.
We would like to get the section that crosses 8 fairway completed next depending upon weather. This is the longest section of the project. We have some soil/dirt work to that fairway to help move water to the surface drain we exposed in the left side of the fairway. Our hope is to have some dry weather so we can move soil and get the section compacted properly and sodded.
Below are pictures of 2 trees that will be removed during October as we prepare the area for construction of the storm water drain replacement. The ash on the left is directly over the drain pipe and the Willow oak on the right is 2' off the center of the pipe. The trench at the top will be 12' or so wide. There is a 3rd tree that is the Ash to the left front of 6 green that will not be removed but it will be severely compromised by our trench. I expect this tree to not survive the construction due to the severe damage to its root system and surface construction traffic.
Leaves, Many Leaves
It's that time of year where first leaf drop is beginning with Cottonwoods, Ash, Walnuts and other trees which are under stress and or weakened. Our main leaf drop will occur sometime in November depending upon freezing temperatures. A great deal of backpacking, vacuuming, and large blowers plus grinding up leaves back into the soil with our mowers are all a part of the process.
